This invention relates to room air conditioners and is more specifically directed to the configuration of a condenser coil fan orifice to pump collected condensate into the region of a sub-cooling coil located in the basepan of the air conditioner.
In air conditioning systems, condensation normally collects on the evaporator coil, runs off and must be disposed of. In room air conditioners, it is common to direct the condensate through various passageways to the outdoor section of the air conditioner where the compressor, condenser coil and condenser fan are located. When the air conditioner has been in operation for some time, a pool of condensate will collect in the outdoor section of the basepan. Several ways are known for dealing with the collected condensate in order to improve condenser capacity and the energy efficiency rating (EER) of the air conditioning unit. One of these is to provide a slinger arrangement associated with the condenser fan. In a typical slinger arrangement, a blow-through propeller fan coil configuration is used and the condensate collects at a location where the fan structure causes the condensate to be splashed onto the condenser coil where it is evaporated thereby, providing cooling to the condenser. Such slingers are typically located at the fan blade tips on the discharge (high pressure) side of the fan.
The propeller fan is typically surrounded by a condenser fan shroud, which divides the outdoor section into the previously mentioned high pressure side and the low pressure side, which is on the intake side of the condenser fan and in which the fan motor and compressor are located. A second way of utilizing the collected condensate to improve the efficiency of the air conditioning unit is to provide a sub-cooling coil in the basepan of the outdoor section in the low pressure side thereof. When the unit is in operation, this region of the basepan has a collection of condensate therein and the sub-cooling coil is configured to be at least partially immersed in the condensate, thus, promoting further cooling of the liquid refrigerant passing from the condenser coil to the expansion device of the air conditioning unit and thence to the evaporator coil. Designers of air conditioning units are always looking for additional ways in which to enhance the overall energy efficiency of the unit.
An orifice member for a the condenser fan of an air conditioning unit, which has a basepan and partition dividing the unit into an indoor section forwardly of the partition and an outdoor section rearwardly of the partition. The indoor section includes an evaporator coil, an evaporator fan and means for collecting condensate and directing the condensate to the basepan in the outdoor section. The outdoor section includes a condenser coil at the rear thereof, a condenser fan having a suction side and a discharge side, which is located forwardly of the condenser coil, and a compressor. The compressor, condenser and evaporator are connected in a closed refrigeration circuit, which includes a refrigerant line between the discharge of the condenser and the inlet to the evaporator, which includes, serially arranged therein, a sub-cooling coil and an expansion device. The orifice defines a barrier between the suction side and the discharge side of the condenser fan and includes a fan orifice opening therein generally forwardly of the fan to define a restricted air flow passage therethrough between the suction side at a low pressure and the discharge side at a high pressure. The sub-cooling coil is located in the region of the basepan in the outdoor section forwardly of the orifice member and in close proximity thereto. The region of the basepan in which the sub-cooling coil is located is configured to collect condensate. The orifice member has a wall section underlying the fan orifice opening. The wall section has at least one through opening therein laterally spaced from the centerline of the orifice and in close proximity to the basepan. The opening communicates the region of the basepan on the high pressure side of the wall section with the low pressure side region of the basepan, which contains the sub-cooling coil. The opening is located and configured such that when the air conditioner is operating and condensate has collected in the basepan, condensate will be pumped through the opening from the high pressure side to the low pressure side and thereby cause turbulence in the condensate in the region of the basepan, which contains the sub-cooling coil.